Is the Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway role remote?

It's hybrid — Kong expects some on-site time in Milan, Italy.

How much experience is required?

At least 3 years of relevant experience for this Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway role.

Where is the role based?

Kong is hiring for this position in Milan, Italy.

What's the tech stack?

Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AI, Golang, LLM, Linux, Rust, distributed systems.

What seniority level is this role?

Kong targets mid-level candidates for this position.

Is this full-time or contract?

Full-time for this Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway role at Kong.

Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway at Kong

Joblaze summary

In this role, the Software Engineer will focus on developing and maintaining the Kong AI Gateway, which includes implementing features like multi-LLM routing and load balancing. Proficiency in Golang or Rust, along with experience in building scalable distributed systems, is essential for success. This position is suited for engineers with at least three years of experience in server-side applications and a strong technical background in Linux systems. The team operates in a remote environment, emphasizing collaboration and ownership in their projects.

Joblaze insights

Listed today — first seen on Joblaze October 24, 2026. Last confirmed on Kong's careers page October 24, 2026.

Quick facts

Is the Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway role remote?: It's hybrid — Kong expects some on-site time in Milan, Italy.
How much experience is required?: At least 3 years of relevant experience for this Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway role.
Where is the role based?: Kong is hiring for this position in Milan, Italy.
What's the tech stack?: Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AI, Golang, LLM, Linux, Rust, distributed systems.
What seniority level is this role?: Kong targets mid-level candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?: Full-time for this Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway role at Kong.

From the original posting

About the Role:

You will join the engineering team that builds the Kong AI gateway, empowering companies and developers around the world to govern every step of their AI & LLM based innovation.

As a Software Engineer in the AI Gateway Team, you will be working on core features such as multi-LLM routing and balancing, semantic caching and routing, MCP, and more.

What You'll Do:

Responsible for building and maintaining API management software for AI and LLMs and its underlying stack.
Implement new innovative features including proxying capabilities, load balancing, databases support that extend Kong AI Gateway’s offering.
Bugs troubleshooting, performance tuning and low-level optimizations.
Fill the gaps between Kong and third-party deployment platforms and tooling.
Any additional tasks required by manager.

What You'll Bring:

3+ years of programming in server-side applications and components.
Hands on experience with either Golang or Rust
Experience building and debugging applications that are highly scalable, distributed, reliable and resilient.
Solid hands-on low-level technical expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting, and profiling.
Experience in distributed systems, Linux networking stack and computer systems programming, Kong works with APIs on both L7 and L4 transports and protocols, so this expertise and knowledge are required.
Comfortable working with a remotely distributed team.
Strong sense of ownership and excellent verbal and written communication skills -- engineers at Kong write the documentation for their products
Familiarity with AI LLM concepts and applications development

Bonus Points:

Hands on experience with NGINX/OpenResty/Kong/LuaJIT.
Hands on experience with Envoy or Istio.

#LI-EA1

Standard company text repeated across Kong's postings is omitted here.

Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway

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